... cogitating the possibilities by the sound of my own keystrokes ...

September 15, 2009

We've been watching Hoarders on TV. The show is about folks that are not able to get rid of their belongings. It reminds me a lot of the BBC show, How Clean Is Your House, but the folks on Hoarders are really quite ill. All of the folks on How Clean Is Your House really want to get rid of their stuff and just don't know how to do it. The folks on Hoarders literally can't stand to throw anything out.

It's gotten me started on some serious decluttering in our apartment. My office was filled with old books and junk, and I've been taking all of that out to the dumpster. I still have an old TV set and some large speakers that I guess I'm going to have to drive down to the dump, but I've pitched most of that stuff.

One tool that has helped a lot is one of these luggage carts. I've been keeping a good-size box on it, which I fill with miscellaneous junk, and I can easily roll it out to the dumpster. In the past, it's been sturdy enough to roll heavy TV sets and furniture.

I also did some major shredding today. I had let it pile up for the past six months so it took a couple of hours to put it all through our heavy duty shredder.

I also had the unpleasant task of clearing up a clogged kitchen sink. I had decided to send a lot of leftovers down the disposal, and I guess the big wad of spaghetti noodles was just too much for it. I usually use one of those harsh chemical drain cleaners, but I did some research online and decided to use the plunger. Folks online were suggesting, instead of trying to push the clog down, to create great suction up. After doing it the wrong way for an hour, three really hard pulls cleared the drain pretty easily. Amazing, what you can find on the internets.

September 07, 2009

A watercolor of my parents' coy pond (well, a piece of it anyway). Their coy and catfish are huge. They easily are as heavy if not heavier than our obese kitties, and have names like Cher, Serina, Meg, Zorro, Whitey, and others. And they recognize my mother, and come to the surface whenever she is near (especially at feeding time). The catfish could be 30 inches long, with their mouths possibly 4-5 inches across. I read online that they can possibly live as long as 90 years.